Turning

Kiole felt as if everything around him had come to a halt. Anyone else in his place would probably have felt the same.

It was absurd. He wanted to dismiss it as the ravings of a madwoman.

But he couldn't—because the portrait of Langretsi he had just seen was burned into his memory too clearly.

The portrait wearing Inella’s ring had been locked away in the Duke Diarca’s secret vault, while the one with lace gloves was the only version displayed in the mansion.

The scent of secrecy that had clung to that vault.

The cryptic words spoken by the head steward when Kiole had gone to meet his father.

All the things that had seemed unrelated now mixing together to form one large, undeniable picture.

‘...My head is spinning.’

Kiole clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug into his palms. The sharp pain helped him barely come back to his senses. He steadied himself, legs trembling from shock. Fortunately, his arrogant demeanor still held strong even in this moment, and Madam Bishu, caught up in the excitement of revealing her secret, didn’t notice his shaken state.

‘If Father went so far as to hide that portrait, he must have known. Then... did Mother know too? What about the others?’

Barely managing to open his mouth, Kiole asked:

“Did Mother... know?”

Beneath Madam Bishu’s veil, her red lips curved into a smile.

“She did.”

“From the beginning? Or...”

“I never told her directly. But she sensed it from a young age—that she wasn’t a true daughter of House Dilejian. Everything became clear when His Grace the Duke... no, when the second prince of House Diarca came to this estate.”

“...”

“Back then, none of us knew things would turn out this way. Neither I nor Lady Inella, for that matter.”

Whenever she spoke of Empress Dowager Inella, Madam Bishu’s voice was tinged with deep reverence and longing. It was noticeably different from how she spoke of Langretsi.

And now, Kiole finally understood that clearly.

“Who chose you to be my mother’s nursemaid?”

“Of course, Her Highness the Empress Dowager. I was her most trusted handmaiden.”

According to Madam Bishu, she had come to this estate under Inella’s orders right after Langretsi’s birth.

“I still remember the day I stepped across this estate’s threshold with the infant Lady Langretsi in my arms. The grief of knowing I might never again see Her Highness’s face while alive... it was unbearable. But I never once neglected my duty.”

The more he listened to her dreamy, wistful voice, the colder Kiole’s hands grew.

Suppressing the sick feeling rising in his throat, he finally asked what might be the most important question—one he truly didn’t want to ask, but which only this woman could answer.

“Then... who was my mother’s real father?”

“Oh my, you haven’t guessed that part yet?”

“...I haven’t. Do you not know either?”

“Of course I know. Her Highness told me everything.”

His heart pounded so hard it felt like it might explode.

Holding his breath, Kiole waited—and finally, the truth reached his ears.

“Lady Langretsi’s father was Lord Idelrof la Diarca. He passed away long ago, so it’s possible you don’t know much about him...”

No. He did.

As a child, he had once visited the family’s graveyard with his father, where his mother was buried. Curious about the other gravestones nearby, he had asked who they were, and his father had explained that the plots were arranged by order of death. Most belonged to his father’s siblings. Among them had been one named Idelrof la Diarca.

‘More precisely... he said Idelrof was something like a cousin to him.’

His father hadn’t mentioned anything unusual about Idelrof. But there was one thing Kiole distinctly remembered: the fact that he was...

‘...the younger brother of the late Empress Dowager Inella.’

A chill ran through him, draining all strength from his body.

Kiole instinctively stepped back, as if someone had grabbed his throat. freewēbnoveℓ.com

His heart was beating so violently that he felt like his brain was shaking.

Marriage between cousins was common among noble families. To preserve wealth and bloodlines, many houses still encouraged it.

But for two people who were full siblings to marry—or have a child—was unheard of. Even in an environment where internal marriages were normalized, that was strictly forbidden. It was an explicit taboo. Old tales told of lovers who took their own lives after learning they shared both parents—but those were just legends. Those legends existed because such a thing must not happen. There were even whispers that in ancient times, royal families obsessed with pure blood had once broken that taboo, but whether it was true or not, no one knew.

But here it was. That ultimate taboo had taken place—within his own family. His grandmother and grandfather.

And one of them had gone on to become an Empress, and later, the Empress Dowager.

Such a thing would have been impossible without the silent complicity of the entire Diarca family.

How many secrets had been buried under the family name?

How had his father... and his mother... lived on knowing all this?

“...”

“Her Highness cherished Lord Idelrof deeply. That’s why she arranged for Lady Langretsi to be raised in comfort. It was a terribly risky decision... especially when you consider Lord Rehoden.”

Rehoden? Who was that?

Kiole frowned in confusion, then finally pieced it together.

‘Ah... Right. She had a son during her time as Empress... That’s right, there was someone like that.’

Inella la Orr had been the second Empress of the previous Emperor. She had been chosen only after the first Empress, the one who bore the current Emperor’s father, died unexpectedly.

She bore a prince—but the child fell ill with an incurable disease and died young. Kiole had been born after that prince’s death and had never met him, but some of the elders in House Diarca still occasionally spoke of him.

They would say: “If only the Empress’s son had been healthy. If only he’d lived a little longer, the line of succession would’ve changed completely.” That if he had lived, there would be no Emperor Keillusa today, nor a Duke of Peleta. It was a dangerous line of talk in hindsight, but they always said it with genuine concern for the Empire. Until recently, Kiole had thought so too...

Had it been revealed that Empress Inella had a daughter like Langretsi, she would never have become Empress in the first place.

‘If that had happened, then Mother... and I...’

Whoever had said that Kiole carried the purest blood of Diarca had not been wrong.

Kiole la Diarca was, without question, the most Diarca a Diarca could possibly be—born from Diarca and Diarca themselves.

While Madam Bishu continued talking, Kiole dazedly turned his gaze away. There, standing motionless with his hat pressed low to hide his face, was Kishiar.

‘He said he’d believe me only if I could give the same answer after hearing her story...’

How much had he known, and since when?

Now, finally, Kiole understood why Kishiar had said that.

But Madam Bishu’s indulgent reminiscence wasn’t over yet.